Clever boy. He just paraphrased something I said to Sylvia about why I don’t like making my relationships “Instagram official.”
Savage continues, “But then, when that Instagrammer made her video, broadcasting to the world everything I’d drunkenly babbled to her in private, I told Laila, ‘There’s no turning back now, babe. Let’s make it official!’ But before we’d decided how or when to do that, the producers called to say they’d decided to promote Laila from mentor to judge this season.” He smiles at me. “And now, here we are.”
“Ah, so this is a publicity stunt,” a reporter yells.
“No, not at all,” Savage insists. “The powers that be at the show determined Laila sitting at the judges’ table would make things especially fun and interesting this season. But that doesn’t make our relationship any less real. All that means is Laila and I will get to spend a whole lot more time together over the next few months.” He looks at me and smiles. “Which is a great thing, as far as we’re concerned. Who wouldn’t leap at the chance to work with the person they’re head over heels in love with?”
Whoa. The man is good.
“How long have you two been together?” that same reporter asks, all prior skepticism gone from his tone.
“It happened little by little during our tour,” Savage explains. “But we’ve been glued at the hip for about the past month.”
“To be clear,” I interject, my finger raised, “I wasn’t lying to Sylvia when I said Savage and I didn’t get along during most of the tour. As a matter of fact, we couldn’t stand each other for a large portion of it.”
“No, you couldn’t stand me,” Savage corrects, making everyone chuckle. “And rightly so. I was like a kid pulling her pigtails on the playground, guys. But after we got back from the tour, I called Laila and charmed her pants off . . . literally.” Everyone guffaws, while I bat Savage’s shoulder playfully. “And then, everything took off from there, on a rocket.” Savage leans forward. “That ‘rocket’ being the one in my pants.”
As the room explodes at Savage’s raunchy comment, Sunshine chokes out, “It’s a family show, Savage.” But by the expression on Nadine Collins’ face at the back of the room, it’s clear our executive producer isn’t upset in the least about Savage’s sexual innuendo. In fact, her expression makes it clear the head honcho is pleased as punch.
“How’d you convince Laila to board your rocket, Savage?” someone shouts.
“Have you seen me?” he says cheekily. And, again, everyone in the room rolls with laughter. Savage waves the air in front of him. “No, no. Actually, it required some good old- fashioned groveling to get things going with Laila. I called her after the tour and apologized for my bad behavior, and, thankfully, things took off from there.” He looks at me. “I’m not the best at apologizing, usually. At least, not first. But, somehow, my desire to win Laila over outweighed my ego and pride.” He kisses the top of my hand that’s still clasped in his. “It was the best decision I’ve ever made.”
Awwww, everyone in the room says in unison. And I must admit, I’m swooning along with them. I know, intellectually, this is all fake. A pitch-perfect performance from one of the world’s best performers. But my heart and body can’t resist reacting to this moment as if what Savage is saying is very, very real.
“What’d you think when Savage called and groveled, Laila?” someone yells.
I look at my fake boyfriend adoringly. “I thought ‘Is this a prank?’”
Everyone chuckles.
“But then, Savage shocked me by letting down his guard. He told me some personal things that made me realize I’d misjudged him during the tour. And that’s when he really turned on the charm.” I grin at Savage. “He told me that, ever since we’d been home from tour, he’d been desperately missing my ‘beautiful face,’ and—”
“No,” Savage interrupts. “I said I’d been missing your beautiful smug face. And I didn’t use the word ‘desperately.’”
“Yes, you did.”
“That word isn’t in my vocabulary.”
“Well, it was that day.” I address the crowd, rolling my eyes, and it’s clear they’re eating up this interaction with a spoon. “Savage told me he’d been ‘desperately’ missing my ‘beautiful smug face’—I admit he used the word ‘smug.’ And then, he said he was sorry for being such a ‘jerk’ to me during the tour. He explained he’d had some personal stuff going on during that time that had been difficult for him, and my heart cracked wide open.” I look into Savage’s dark eyes. “After that, this man crawled right into the crack in my heart he created that day, during that first phone call, and he’s never crawled back out.”
Savage is blushing, which I find surprising. Humans can’t fake blushing, can they?
“I feel like I should mention,” Savage says, “Laila apologized to me, too, during that first phone call. Don’t leave me hanging out here, looking like too big a softie, Laila.”
“Yes, it’s true. I apologized to him, too. Profusely. If Savage had been a kid pulling my pigtails on the playground, then I’d been the annoying girl who’d purposely tried to provoke that exact reaction. Lucky for me, Savage accepted my apology, and we both agreed to press the reset button. And we haven’t looked back, ever since.”
A collective swoon rises up in the room and Savage and I look away from each other again. And this time, Savage isn’t the only one blushing.
“Thank you for sharing that beautiful story,” Sunshine says reverently. She looks at the crowd. “I don’t know about you, but I’m all aflutter here. Wow.” She returns to Savage and me. “Tell us about your first date.”
Savage says, “At the end of our first phone call, Laila invited me to her place for pizza. And I was like, ‘Pizza? No, I’ll cook for you!’”
I interject, “So, he came over to my place that night and made me a phenomenal meal, and”—I smirk suggestively at Savage—“we’ve been inseparable ever since.”
The crowd applauds.
“Wonderful!” Sunshine bellows. “And now, are there any questions for Jon and Aloha?”
Nadine at the back of the room shakes her head sharply, telling our host it’s not yet time to shift focus to the other judges. And Sunshine, pro that she is, instantly changes course. “Actually, the floor still belongs to Savage and Laila! Any other questions for our happy couple?”
A reporter yells, “Laila, what did you think when you found out Savage had let the cat out of the bag about your relationship to Sheree Dawson—the influencer who then made that viral video? Were you mad? Sheree’s got a huge following and notoriously loves Savage and Fugitive Summer, so he must have known she’d post something.”
“To be clear,” Savage interjects, before I’ve replied, “I had no idea who she was. But I do admit I was drunk and bursting at the seams to tell the world about Laila and me by then. So, you do the math. I’m not known for making sound decisions on my best day—but particularly not when I’ve been drinking.”